When a walk-on is rewarded with a scholarship, everyone in the UW locker room wins

Matt Henningsen said he sat there completely stunned after Badgers head coach Paul Chryst announced to the team before a game last season that the walk-on from Menomonee Falls was being put on scholarship.(Photo: Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

MADISON – Like most college football coaches, Paul Chryst revels in rewarding walk-ons with scholarships.

You won’t see those interactions – emotional for the coaches, soon-to-be-former walk-ons and rest of the team – plastered all over social media, however.

That isn’t Chryst’s style.

Last season offered a classic example.

Speaking to the full team before an early-season game, Chryst closed his comments with an announcement.

Defensive end Matt Henningsen and kickoff specialist Zach Hintze were being put on scholarship.

“Everyone was going crazy and I was sitting there in shock, eyes wide,” he said. “It was pretty awesome. Coach Chryst isn’t flashy with that type of stuff. I like how he is. It was perfect the way he did it. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

Chryst, 53, has been coaching football for 30 years. He has been a head coach for the last seven years.

One part of the job that never gets old is seeing how walk-ons react to the news they are being rewarded with a scholarship.

“I think what you always appreciate is that it is something that’s truly earned,” Chryst, entering his fifth season as Wisconsin’s head coach, said recently. “And I think what is fun about the actual moment. I don’t think those guys even know how much they are appreciated by their teammates.

“There is real value to it, too. But I think the real enjoyment is that they earned something. And then to see the gratitude and the excitement, those are pretty cool moments.”

Seven players on the UW roster joined the program as walk-ons and were eventually placed on scholarship:

Offensive lineman Josh Seltzner, a redshirt sophomore from Columbus High School; offensive lineman Jason Erdmann, a redshirt senior from Slinger High School; tight end Zander Neuville, a sixth-year senior from Waupaca High School; tailback Garrett Groshek, a redshirt junior from Amherst High School; outside linebacker Tyler Johnson, a redshirt senior from Menasha; Henningsen, a redshirt sophomore from Menomonee Falls High School; and Hintze, a redshirt senior from St. Mary's Springs High School in Fond du Lac.

Henningsen had started the opener, the first UW walk-on to do so since at least 1990. He went on to start 10 of 13 games last season Hintze was in his second season as UW’s kickoff specialist. He recorded touchbacks on 68.4% of his kickoffs in 2017 and went on to improve that mark to 81.8% last season.

“The way we work here…you get rewarded for working hard,” Henningsen said. “As you move up, you get your reward.”

Henningsen rewarded his parents with a phone call, telling them he had earned a scholarship.

“That is the most exciting thing about getting that scholarship,” he said. “Making that phone call to your parents and saying: ‘Hey, I did what I wanted to do. This was my goal from the start.’

“They were going crazy on the phone because they didn’t expect it. It was only my second year here. It was pretty cool.”

Seltzner learned he was going on scholarship several days after the opener against Western Kentucky. Chyrst pulled Seltzner aside in the dining area and told him they needed to meet in his office.

“I thought I was going to be in trouble or something,” Seltzner joked.

Chryst was just messing with the burly lineman, away from prying eyes.

“I was shocked and happy,” Seltzner said. “I called my parents as soon as I could. It was an emotional phone call. I called my sisters and told them. It was a really cool moment.”

Groshek, Erdmann and Johnson were in the two deep entering the 2018 season.

All were walk-ons.

Groshek recalls the day last summer when Chryst, during a team meeting, informed all three they were being placed on scholarship.

“Coach Chryst had a team meeting in the summer,” Groshek said, grinning. “So a dead giveaway.

“And then he called me, Erds and Tyler Johnson…We were three walk-ons that had been playing a decent amount, so another dead giveaway.”

Chryst made the announcement and the room reacted as it had in the past during similar moments.

“The whole place went bananas,” Groshek said. “Everybody jumped us and almost broke my glasses.”

Asked what he remembers most about that day, Groshek offered an interesting and telling response.

“The way the teammates react,” he said. “Those guys really care about you. They really love you. Just to see their excitement…makes it worthwhile.”

UW athletic director Barry Alvarez, who served as head coach from 1990 through the 2005 season and then as interim coach in two bowl games, has similar memories.

“For a coach to do it, you feel so good,” Alvarez said. “Because that is what you’re preaching. If you do a good job and you move up in the depth, you’ll earn a scholarship.

“So when you can back that up and they’ve earned it, it is such a good feeling for them. It is is really good for their parents because they don’t have to pay for school anymore.

“And for us as coaches, just to see the reaction of the kids because of how much it means to them, it is pretty special.”

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